Eggen defends school shutdown as parents voice concerns

Alberta’s Education Minister is trying to quash talk of being anti-religious after pulling accreditation and funding from the Trinity Christian School Association in Cold Lake.

The province pulled the funding after a three-year audit found financial and conflict of interest concerns.

The registration and accreditation for the association, which oversees 3.500 home-schooled students and 13 students who learn in a classroom.

Minister David Eggen said Trinity supporters are claiming the government has it out for Christian schools but he says it was only about how public money was spent.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” explained Eggen. “We know that the various providers of education in our province include a separate school system, with private schools and homeschooling, and when everything is moving as it should, it is a very high-quality delivery of education.”

He commented that it had nothing to do with religion.

“It is very important that public money is dealt with according to the law and according to proper accounting practices,” explained Eggen. “We worked very hard and long to look for how the money was being spent and we found serious flaws.”

Eggen said it is critical to ensure public funds are spent properly.

“It doesn’t matter who a group is or an individual, whatever it happens to be, if it is public money, it has to be ensured that it is being spent in an efficient and transparent matter and both of those things were found wanting in regards to Trinity.”

He explained his job is to ensure public money is spent properly and if there is an issue, he needs to act on that. Eggen says the majority of Albertans agree.

In 2014, the former-Conservative government shut down the International School of Excellence in Calgary as a result of an inquiry that found financial irregularities.

Eggen says around 11,000 students across Alberta are home-schooled.

The audit found the Wisdom Home Schooling Society, part of the Trinity Christian School Association, retained $988,000 in public money a year, and had ineligible expenses and other irregularities.

The RCMP and Canada Revenue Agency have been notified about the findings. (twd, Newstalk770, Global News)

For anyone who has paid attention to comments made by Eggen since becoming Education Minister, it is that he wants all to be the same, he does not like alternate education programs, especially parent directed ones and if anyone challenges him, he threatens to shut them down immediately.

If this was only about the matter of expenditures of tax dollars, oversight by the government of the WISDOM program would occur, then after a thorough (unbiased) investigation, a fair decision about the future of WISDOM would occur.

An excellent move to wipe out homeschooling is to destroy a program that manages 30 percent of the students.

I think the NDP want to accomplish this now, because after the next election it is them that the electorate will have eliminated.